Valentino / Spring 2011 Couture

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Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli have moved beyond the paralyzed-by-respect phase involved when a designer (or even two of them) take over a storied house. This season, the flow and the flutter of their long, pale, pretty allusions to the early seventies—soft-focus butterfly chokers and David Hamilton maxi dresses—broke free of any past restraints of what should and should not be presented as ladylike couture. “We just wanted to remove all heaviness,” Piccioli said. “The idea is that the dresses are so light, they almost become part of the woman herself.” Chiuri nodded, adding: “And we wanted a kind of sensuality too.”

They chose the house specialty, pleating, as a central motif—a good choice, since it’s around this spring, and no one can achieve it (with minutely narrow ribbons of lace, or hundreds of fan-like ripples of chiffon, hand-pressed with an iron) like the Valentino seamstresses in Rome. Technique alone, however, can’t lift a collection unless it has some connection or contribution to the way fashion is thinking. This one gently hit the mark with its contradictions between long lengths, high collars, and wrist-length sleeves, and the fact that so much was semitransparent (though never blatant). In this curious transitional moment when body-con feels incredibly old, yet girls are reluctant to sacrifice a show of leg, these Valentino dresses—and the quiet eroticism beneath their innocent prettiness—seem poised in exactly the right place.